Android’s market share is a ‘joke,’ and ‘Apple owns the high end’ of the smartphone market (interview)

http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/29/androids-market-share-is-a-joke-and-apple-owns-the-high-end-of-the-market/

Android’s market share is a joke, and most tech writers aren’t getting the punchline.

That, at least, is the opinion of John Kirk, a “recovering attorney,” financial adviser, business coach, and investor who wrote an interesting column recently stating that market share in general, and Android’s market share in particular, is not an appropriate measure of success.

And that contrary to all popular opinion, Apple is “winning the smartphone wars — and winning them handily.”

That’s not what you hear from most pundits, industry analysts, or Wall Street investors these days. Rather, the news is all about how Android has won, how its market share is massively outpacing Apple’s, and how Apple has failed by slowing innovation and refusing to release cheaper and more diversified iPhones.

I wanted to understand Kirk’s position, so yesterday we chatted about Apple, Google, Android, and Wall Street.

Source: John Koetsier

Android is open for business, apparently.

VentureBeat: You stated that Android’s market share is a joke. Why?

John Kirk: It’s a reference to the old joke that you can lose money on every sale but make it up in volume.

Many companies in the Android ecosystem are losing money or, at best, breaking even. HTC, Motorola, and many of the other phone manufacturers are in that boat.

VentureBeat: But isn’t profit a trailing indicator?

Kirk: Yes, it is.

But market share isn’t necessarily a leading indicator. Profit comes from a combination of market share times margins, and people are completely ignoring margins.

VentureBeat: That’s typically explained via platforms and ecosystems, and the network effects that a bigger platform has, and that the profits are coming — at some point.

Kirk: Different business models should be scored differently.

I’m talking almost exclusively about hardware manufacturers, which I think are poorly measured by market share and should be measured by profit share. If you’re looking at Apple and companies like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung from the manufacturer perspective, Apple is winning, Samsung is in second, and everyone is in a very distant third.

Source: John Koetsier

Android meets Wall-E.

Regarding platform, there’s an assumption that market share is the only thing that matters. And yet, all the evidence indicates that Apple’s iOS has a very strong platform, even with much, much smaller market share than Android.

The way the Android advocates explain this is to say that their theory is sound and that profit share must follow market share and that it’s going to happen any day now … but there’s no evidence that it actually is happening.

Saying that market share is the only thing that matters in platforms is like saying that acreage is the only thing that matters in real estate. Sure, the size of a property matters, but the location matters more. And sure, the size of market share matters, but the quality of the market share matters more.

In other words, Apple owns the high end of the market.

VentureBeat: One example that platform effects might be starting to impact iOS and Android is Google Music. Apple can’t seem to get a streaming music deal done, but Google was able to.

Kirk: Just because Apple hasn’t done it yet doesn’t mean they won’t do it. I think the music industry would much, much rather have Apple’s ecosystem than Android’s because that’s where the money is.

I’m not saying that Google Music won’t be OK, but it doesn’t impress me. It’s not necessarily another Google TV, but I don’t think it’ll be that big a deal.

Market share is like advertising … a huge audience is fine, but it’s much better to have a very focused, targeted audience.

VentureBeat: Are Google and Amazon wrong? They’re betting on the value of an ecosystem being a function of the value that flows through it — media, apps, books, ads, commerce — not just the value of the device it’s on.

Kirk: Google is playing a different game and wants to be scored differently … and it should be scored differently.

But Apple is winning in manufacturing … and that doesn’t mean that Google is losing in the advertising war. In fact they are winning, too — they’ve got exactly what they want.

It’s a mistake to think that Android is the only platform that matters to Google … in fact they’re spending a ton of resources on iOS apps as well.

VentureBeat: Leveraging a high profit share on a low market share is certainly efficient. But is it safe?

Kirk: There are two possible answers to that.

You can look at the PC wars versus the Mac, which everyone says that Apple lost … but what Apple “lost” by losing that war was winning 45 percent of the current market’s profits! So despite the fact that currently they’re at 8 percent market share, they’re doing very well.

Apple has historically demonstrated that they’ve been able to not just survive but thrive on limited market share.

I don’t think that history is repeating … it seems much more likely that we’re ending up with a duopoly rather than a monopoly, and that Apple’s ecosystem is large enough to be self-sustaining right now.

So what Apple needs to do is continue to add value to its ecosystem.

VentureBeat: If you’re right, why does Wall Street disagree with you?

Kirk: Wall Street had Apple valued at $700 last fall, and they have Apple valued at under $400 six months later.

So Wall Street was either wrong about Apple then, or they’re wrong about Apple now, or they were wrong both times. You shouldn’t judge the business value of a company by Wall Street’s variable estimates — you need to judge the fundamentals.

Frankly, if you’re investing in Wall Street, you need to be lucky as hell.

Image credit: Jesus Belzunce Gomez/Flickr

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/29/androids-market-share-is-a-joke-and-apple-owns-the-high-end-of-the-market/#0V6ZWku8FdMC9krb.99 

5 Business & Design Tools Every Tech Freelancer Should Learn

http://readwrite.com/2013/05/29/5-tools-every-tech-freelancer-should-learn

Guest author Danny Groner is manager of blogger partnerships and outreach forSkillfeed.

When you work as a freelance designer or coder, your success or failure is entirely reliant on you. Since there's no one else you can blame for missed deadlines or shoddy work, it's incumbent on you to keep your skills fresh, your attention fixed and your ideas polished.

The people who excel working for themselves are more than just good networkers - they make themselves marketable through the array of tasks they can tackle and complete. Quite simply, they offer more opportunity and flexibility than their peers.

It's always going to be easier and more efficient for a company to hire one contractor for a given project than two, or more. If you show that you have the skills to accomplish all aspects of the project yourself, you'll be more a more attractive option. For independent contractors, that versatility requires the ability to make ideas jump off the page. Selling an idea is sometimes not as simple as putting together a Powerpoint presentation, so it helps to know both basic and advanced tools of creating and presenting your work.

(See also 15 Programming Skills Most Coveted By Employers.)

Developing skills in these five tools - four from Adobe, one from Microsoft - will come in handy for almost any tech freelancer:

1. Adobe Dreamweaver

Lots of developers are taking over basic elements of design because technology has made everything so much simpler. Adobe Dreamweaver is the quintessential program that combines HTML and design, and it saves you time as it writes HTML code for you as you go. You can think about layout design as you write code for your site, and then check how those elements are developing on the back and front end.

2. Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the most commonly known image manipulation program around, and is used primarily for photographs, banner design and Web graphics. Since Photoshop is a pixel-based software, be careful to keep all images to a fixed size or risk stretching them out and distorting them. On the plus side, it's a relatively user-friendly applicaiton that's easy to pick up and even for basic color correction and retouching. While many people already have a basic understanding of Photoshop, taking the time to dive in a bit more will reveal an endless world of possibilities.

(See also Adobe Just Killed Your Ability To Pirate Photoshop.)

3. Illustrator

If you're working on vector-based projects, like logos, illustrations or typography, you should use Illustator to prevent blurriness. Quality is retained as you enlarge or shrink images. If you're in the market for a new business card, Illustrator is the way to go. Make sure, however, to first edit and crop your photos in Photoshop before moving them over to Illustrator. You can get more creative with projects in Illustrator, taking on brochures, stationary, and more.

4. Adobe InDesign

Once you've edited and prepared your images, sometimes you'll want to incorporate them into bigger features. That's where InDesign comes in. It's a layout program that lets you organize text alongside your images to make for more consistent displays. You can import graphics from both Photoshop and Illustrator to brighten up text-heavy PDFs, for example. It also supports multi-page assignments like annual reports that some clients may ask for.

5. Microsoft Excel

You may not be a math person, but Microsoft Excel can still serve you well. In addition to offering easy-to-manage spreadsheets that will help you keep track of expenses and progress, Excel gives you the chance to really investigate your opportunity costs and growth opportunities for your freelance business. Successful consultants and freelancers need to think analytically and know how to process data to tell a story. For Web developers looking to increase their organization's scalability, it's worth investing in basic Excel skills. There are plenty of other spreadsheets, including some good free ones in the cloud, but Excel remains the standard, and the one your clients are most likely to use.

A Round-Up Of All The New Tools Google Gave To App Developers

http://www.businessinsider.com/all-of-googles-new-app-developer-tools-2013-55

Mobile Insights is a daily newsletter from BI Intelligence delivered first thing every morning exclusively to BI Intelligence subscribers. Sign up for a free trial of BI Intelligence today.

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Kevin Smith/Business Insider

Many Of Google's New App Developer Tools Focus On Location-Based Services (SAI)

Google rolled out a series of new features and products for its developer community yesterday. It introduced three new location-based APIs: the Fused Location Provider, which will drastically reduce the battery drain of location features; the Google Geofencing API, which allows apps to respond to users entering or exiting defined geographic areas, sure to be a boon to mobile advertising; and the Activity Recognition API, which will automatically determine if users are walking, running or biking (you can read one developer's thoughts on the new APIs here). Read > 

Games Also Got An Overhaul (Engadget) 

Google Play Game Services brings real-time multiplayer to mobile games, allows users to continue games across devices, and will work across Android, iOS, and the Web. It also comes with an API to monitor piracy, a big issue on Android. Read > 

Developers Also Got A New Environment In Which To Tinker With Apps (ZDnet)

Google also introduced Android Studio is a new developer environment designed to optimize and simplify building Android apps. It is also pushing out five new features to its Developer Console: Optimization Tips, App Translation Service, Referral Tracking, Revenue Graphs, and Beta Testing and Staged Rollouts. Read > 

Sundar Pichai's Strategy: Focus On Apps And Services, And Users (Wired)

Why so much focus on developers? Revenue per Android user has grown 2.5 times from a year ago, per Android boss Sundar Pichai, but it still badly lags rival iOS, especially considering its installed base advantage. Pichai recently told Wired, "Users care about applications and services they use, not operating systems." And who builds those apps and services? Read >

Google Also Released Google Play Music, A Spotify Competitor (The Verge)

Users can now stream music, create on-demand radio, and combine locally stored and streaming tracks into a master playlist for $9.99 per month, the same as Spotify. Unlike Spotify, however, it does not appear to have a free service (i.e. it is not a freemium model). It is not clear what the real advantage of Google Play Music is, if any, excepting perhaps better integration with your Android device. Read >

And Google Hangouts ... A Mobile Messaging App (The Verge)

Similar to WhatsApp, Kik, and Facebook Messenger, it is now available and will eventually replace Google's other communication properties, like Google Talk and Google+ Messenger. Given Google's massive user base, this will only exacerbate carriers' anxieties over lost SMS revenue. However, the mobile messaging space has become very crowded recently, as we discussed in our report on messaging apps. As if that wasn't enough, Google also announced today that users of Google Wallet will be able to send money to friends via Gmail, even if the friend doesn't have Wallet. Read >

Apple's App Store Reaches 50 Billion Downloads (MacRumors)

That's up from 40 billion in January, meaning Apple's App Store is on pace for more than 25 billion app downloads this year. Read >

Mobile Malware Is Exploding—On Android (AppleInsider)

The number of mobile malware families and variants grew nearly 50% in the first quarter, but almost exclusively on Android (with a little on Nokia's antiquated Symbian platform), according to malware researchers F-Secure Labs. About three-quarters of threats are designed to con users out of money, rather than maliciously damage devices. Increasingly, malware developers are creating specialized programs to target weaknesses in the Android platform. This isn't possible under Apple's "closed garden" approach to iOS. Even if Google were to patch the holes, it wouldn't be very effective since most users never update their software. One researcher says the "Android malware ecosystem is beginning to resemble ... Windows." Read >

F-Secure Labs Mobile Malware Threats

Samsung Took 95 Percent Of Android Profits In The First Quarter (BGR)

Given that Samsung and Apple account for substantially all industry profits, this is not particularly surprising. However, it is sure to heighten Google's paranoia about Samsung's dominance of Android. Read >

Mobile Accounts For Nearly Half Of Jackthreads' Orders (TechCrunch)

The next wave of e-commerce companies are increasingly mobile-focused. Jackthreads is a flash sale site for contemporary men's fashion that expects to generate $75 to $100 million in revenue this year. Mobile accounts for more than 10% of U.S. e-commerce sales now. Read >  

Rovio, Maker Of Angry Birds, Releases Other Developers' Games (PC Mag)

The first two games developed by outside developers, Icebreaker and Tiny Thief, are "coming soon." Rovio appears to be transforming itself into a mobile games studio. With games accounting for the bulk of time and money spent on mobile, it stands to reasons that money would be left on the table if Rovio leaned exclusively on in-house developers

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/all-of-googles-new-app-developer-tools-2013-55#ixzz2TUAK50CD

iPhone & Android App Design: Developers Cheat Sheet [Infographic]

http://readwrite.com/2013/05/15/the-developers-cheat-sheet-for-iphone-android-app-design-infographic

Designing a mobile app can seem simple when you are sketching it out on the whiteboard. But when you actually sit down in your developer environment and get cracking, turning your ideas into reality is not always so easy.

That's only the beginning, of course. What if you need to design your app for both the iPhone and Android? You will very quickly learn that you cannot just cut and paste your design from one platform to the other. Android and iOS frameworks share some basic principles, but when it comes to design, they are as different as ebony and ivory. 

For instance, the notification bars in iOS and Android may look similar, but they perform different functions on each platform. And did you know that the action bar interface icon for iPhone is 20x20 pixels, while Android's is 24x24 density-independent pixels? Do you know the difference between a pixel and a density-independent pixel?

Here’s a quick reminder, from StackOverflow: Density-independent Pixels - an abstract unit based on the physical density of the screen. These units are relative to a 160dpi screen, so one dp is one pixel on a 160dpi screen. The ratio of dp-to-pixel changes with the screen density, but not necessarily in direct proportion. Note: The compiler accepts both "dip" and "dp," though "dp" is more consistent with "sp."

Sometimes you just need an easy chart to remember these kinds of things. Mobile cloud-service provider Kinvey created a quick infographic going over the basics of iOS and Android design for easy reference when you are pulling out your hair trying to port your iPhone icons over to an Android app (or vice versa). Check it out below.

Now Google Wants To Kill The Mobile Web (Good Riddance)

http://readwrite.com/2013/05/15/now-google-wants-to-kill-the-mobile-web

Mobile versions of websites are so 2009.

You know those clunky, stripped-down versions of sites with addresses that tack an "m." onto the beginning, and serve up a dumbed-down, limited version of their content? If Google has its way, those sites are headed for the dustbin of history.

At I/O, Google's developer conference held this week in San Francisco, executives Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson showed off examples of websites that traveled smoothly from desktops to tablets to smartphones. A website for the upcoming second installment of the Hobbit movie franchise let you soar above Middle Earth on many devices. And a racing game had cars leaping from smartphone to tablet to laptop.

The vehicle of this, of course, is Google's Chrome Web browser, which is now available across all those platforms (including, as of last year's edition of the I/O conference, Apple's iPhone and iPad).

The point of the demonstrations: You should be able to build your website once and have it adapt to different computing environments, a notion called "responsive design." Rather than force the creator of a website to design for specific screen sizes and interfaces - like keyboards versus touch screens, say - or force users to go through contortions to use websites optimized for the limitations of the wrong device, websites should just sense what computing device is being used and reconfigure themselves accordingly.

Just a few years ago, that sounded like a pipe dream - hence, the proliferation of mobile-optimized websites standing alongside full desktop versions.

At ReadWrite, we haven't just been writing about responsive design. Since last October, when we launched a major redesign of our site, we've been living it. So we're naturally biased in favor of this concept.

It will take time and effort to rearchitect websites for this reality. And there will always be those holdouts- particularly within large, slow-moving businesses - who insist on designing for older versions of Web browsers or mobile devices. Legacy technologies which haven't made the cross-platform leap, like Adobe's fading Flash, need to be winnowed out. But those problem areas will increasingly be the exception, not rule.

Let's just have one Web. That seems easier.

Five Years Of Android: The Devices That Defined Google's Mobile OS

http://readwrite.com/2013/05/14/history-of-google-android-nexus

Nearly five years ago, a smartphone came out that few thought much of. Little did people know that the device would be a harbinger for the next half-decade of mobile innovation, pushing boundaries of technology and launching a fundamental shift in how people interact with computers.

That phone was the HTC G1, the original "Google Phone." It was a clunky, bug-ridden touchscreen device with a slide-out physical keyboard. The G1 did not sell particularly well. The buzz at the time was over Apple's still relatively young iPhone and varying BlackBerry devices, like the original Bold 9000.

Let's not say that the G1 was the beginning of the Mobile Revolution. There are neither beginnings nor endings in the turning of the wheel of technology. But it was a beginning.

The beginning of the Android Era.

It is amazing to look back at the last five years of Android and see just how far the devices that run Google's mobile operating system have come. From the G1 to the Nexus 10, the hardware, software and everything in between has gone from buggy, crash-prone phones to finely tuned devices that dominate mobile computing. Google and its manufacturing partners have done well in a half decade of innovation. What will the next five years bring?

Google is expected to announce a new version of its Android mobile operating system at its I/O developers conference, which runs Wednesday through Friday this week. Google refreshed its flagship Nexus line in November, and new Android chief Sundar Pichai recently downplayed expectations for major new products at I/O, a change from last year, which saw major launches like the Nexus 7 tablet.

Instead, in a sign of Android's maturation, Google will likely put the focus on devices from its hardware partners, like Samsung and HTC—a sign of Android's increasing maturity as a platform. Let's take a look back at the devices that brought Android to this pivotal point in its history.

HTC G1

Released: October 22, 2008

Hardware: 3.2-inch screen (320x480), 1150 mAh battery (removable), slide-out physical keyboard, 256 MB internal storage (expandable external storage), 192 RAM, 3.2 megapixel back camera.

Firmware: Android 1.0

The G1 (also known as the HTC Dream) was the first of Google's flagship smartphones. At the time it was a bit of a curiosity, mostly interesting for how it introduced Google properties (like Maps, Street View, Calendar and Search) to the smartphone market. The G1 was limited to T-Mobile in the United States.

Motorola Droid

Released: October 17, 2009

Hardware: 3.7-inch screen (480x854), 1400 mAh battery (removable), slide-out keyboard, 512 MB internal storage (expandable external storage), 256 MB RAM, 5 MP back camera.

Firmware: Android 2.0 (Eclair)

Boom goes the dynamite. The Motorola Droid was the first true Android smartphone to be popular with the masses. It was released to Verizon with heavy marketing targeted at what the Droid could do that an iPhone could not, like multi-tasking. The "Droid Does" slogan became a popular part of the geek lexicon and was Motorola's high water mark in the smartphone wars. The Droid shipped with the original Android 2.0 "Eclair" version but was quickly updated to a much more stable version in Android 2.1.

Nexus One

Released: January 5, 2009

Hardware: 3.7-inch screen (480x800), 1400 mAh battery (removable), 512 MB internal storage (expandable), 512 MB RAM, 5 MP back camera.

Firmware: Android 2.1 (Eclair)

The Nexus One was the first Android device commissioned directly from Google to serve as the flagship of the operating system. The One was built by HTC (an altered with HTC's "Sense" skin for its Incredible smartphone) and immediately became the sexiest Android smartphone on the market. The Nexus series has since become known as the "guide" device for new versions of the operating system. The Nexus One also marked an experiment by Google to bypass the carriers and sell directly to consumers through its website. The One was also one of the first Android smartphone to ship with Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality. This experiment did not take among consumers and most subsequent Nexus devices were offered through Google alongside subsidized versions from the likes of AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint. Google did not release a Nexus device for Android 2.2, with updated firmware for the Nexus One serving as the de facto flagship for Froyo.

Nexus S

Released: December 16, 2010.

Hardware: 4-inch screen (480x800), 1500 mAh battery (removable), 16 GB internal storage, 512 MB RAM, 5 MP back camera, VGA front camera.

Firmware: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

Samsung really started its rise to the top of the Android pyramid in 2010 with the release of its wide-ranging Galaxy S smartphones. Google tapped the Korean manufacturer for the next two Nexus devices, starting with the Nexus S. The device was the flagship for Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is still the most-used version of the operating system years after its release.

Motorola Xoom

Released: February 24, 2011.

Hardware: 10.1-inch screen (800x1280), 6000 mAh battery (non-removable), 32 GB internal storage, 1 GB RAM, 5 MP back camera, 2 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 3.2 (Honeycomb)

Google took a break from the Nexus line with Android 3.2 Honeycomb and went with Motorola for the flagship device of the operating system. Honeycomb and the Xoom turned out to be a complete albatross in the Android ecosystem, never gaining traction with consumers or developers. In fact, Honeycomb was so lampooned for being "half-finished" that Google never even released the normally open source Android kernel code and very few devices were ever made that used the operating system. Honeycomb was supposed to be Google's answer to the Android tablet conundrum. To this point, the only Android tablets that had been released ran some version of Froyo or Gingerbread, Android versions that were suboptimal for large screen devices. Honeycomb ultimately served as the stepping stone between Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich, which married the smartphone and tablet capabilities of Android and made it much easier for developers and manufacturers to create applications for a variety of screen sizes. 

Galaxy Nexus

Released: November 17, 2011.

Hardware: 4.65-inch screen (720x1280), 1750 mAh battery (removable), 16/32 GB internal storage (no external memory), 1 GB RAM, 5 MP back camera, 1.3 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

In many ways, Android phones made a giant leap at the end of 2011. Screens started to get bigger (eventually much bigger) and Android got a lot smarter, easy to use and out of its own way. This was epitomized with the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich. Android can almost be categorized into two phases: Android 2.3 Gingerbread and everything that came before and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and everything that came after. Starting with the Galaxy Nexus, Android smartphones have run smoother, been more secure, had bigger screens and hardware specifications that are all almost nearly double what came before.

Nexus 7

Released: July 13, 2012.

Hardware: 7-inch screen (800x1280), 4325 mAh battery (non-removable), 8/16/32 GB internal memory (no external memory), 1 GB RAM, 1.2 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

The first Nexus tablet was announced at Google I/O in June 2012 and shipped a couple weeks later. The Nexus 7 cemented the market for lower priced tablets (next to the Kindle Fire at $199) with smaller screens in the 7-inch variety. From a hardware point of view, the Nexus 7 was not the most sophisticated tablet ever to be released, but it showed that Android has the ability to seamlessly run on tablet-sized screens while also highlighting the capabilities of Jelly Bean as a tablet operating system. Google refreshed the Nexus 7 later in the year to give it cellular connectivity. 

Nexus 4

Released: November 13, 2012.

Hardware: 4.7-inch screen (768x1280), 2100 mAh battery (non-removable), 8/16 GB internal memory, 2 GB RAM, 8 MP back camera, 1.3 MP front camera. 

Firmware: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)

The latest Android firmware is version 4.2, the second instance of Jelly Bean (much in the same way that Android 2.0/2.1 were both Eclair). The Nexus 4 from LG was released at the end of 2012 with two other devices -- the Nexus 10 from Samsung (below) and the upgraded Nexus 7. As yet, adoption of Android 4.2 has been minimal as it is an iterative update to what already existed in Android 4.1, with some minor feature upgrades. While many people consider the Nexus 4 to be a superb instance of an Android smartphone, it was criticized for its lack of 4G LTE, of which most new smartphones have included by default. The phone was made available through Google Play store (along with it tablet siblings) and on T-Mobile.

Nexus 10

Released: November 13, 2012.

Hardware: 10.05-inch screen (1600x2560), 9000 mAh battery (non-removable), 16/32 GB memory, 2 GB RAM, 5 MP back camera, 1.9 MP front camera.

Firmware: Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)

Samsung came back to produce the first branded large-screen (8-inches or up) Nexus tablet with the Nexus 10. The tablet was the first large screen to roll out with a flagship Android update since Motorola released the Xoom tablet with the Honeycomb release in February 2011. 

What will this week bring at Google I/O 2013? Will we finally see Android 5.0? Or is there another update to Jelly Bean (Android 4.3)? We will be everywhere at I/O next week bringing you news of Google's latest gadgets, apps and developer news. Stay tuned.

Android Now Ahead Of Apple's iOS In Tablet Market Share

http://www.businessinsider.com/android-ahead-of-ios-tablet-market-share-2013-5

The International Data Corporation (IDC) just released its quarterly report on tablet shipments for the first quarter of 2013. The data show that tablet shipments have exploded, up 142% year over year. 

The report comes a few weeks after IDC released devastating news for the PC industry, saying shipments were down 14% year over year as people chose to buy tablets instead.

IDC also reports that Google's Android powered more tablets shipped last quarter than Apple's iOS operating system on iPads. An IDC spokesperson said Android actually overtook iOS on tablets in the third quarter of 2012. 

It's a similar trend to the one we see in smartphones. Apple is consistently one of the top vendors, but Android powers more devices as whole since so many manufacturers have access to the open source OS. IDC counts the Kindle Fire as an Android tablet even though Amazon heavily modifies the software and removes Google's app store and other services.

According to IDC, Apple was the number one tablet vendor last quarter and took nearly 40% of the market, largely thanks to the smaller and cheaper iPad Mini. Samsung was number two with almost 18% of the market, followed by Asus and Amazon.

It's also worth noting that Microsoft shipped about 900,000 Surface tablets last quarter. That number includes the Surface Pro, which launched in February. 

Here's the breakdown of top tablet vendors: 

IDC

Here's the breakdown of tablet operating system market share:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/android-ahead-of-ios-tablet-market-share-2013-5#ixzz2TBDrV2xr